AUGUSTA, Maine – The State Senate voted, 23-12, in favor of a bill that would require police to obtain a warrant before using unmanned aerial vehicles or drones to collect evidence in a criminal investigation.

The bill, LD 236, allows police to use the vehicles for emergency law enforcement activities as well as for search and rescue efforts.

The bill also prohibits the use of facial recognition software on drones and disallows police to use weaponized drones. Both technologies are allowed for research and development by private companies working on drones.

In a series of roll call votes Monday night the Senate first rejected the Legislature’s Judiciary Committees majority report, which would have placed a moratorium on drone use by police for one year while a committee organized by the state’s criminal justice academy studied the matter.

“With this vote, the Maine Senate recognized the importance of protecting Mainers’ privacy,” Oamshri Amarasingham, public policy counsel for the ACLU of Maine said in a prepared statement. “Drones can have very valid uses such as search and rescue in remote areas, but Mainers should not have to live in fear of drones hovering over their backyards watching them and their families.”

The issue of drone use by civilian law enforcement agencies has also drawn the attention of lawmakers in Washington. Several there, including U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., have sponsored bills to require warrants when drones are used by police.